'Who's on first?'

When I first read the scene between my character Amphytruo and Sosia in the translation provided to us by Professor Jeppesen, I found my mind immediately turning to Abbott and Costello’s ‘Who’s on first?’ comedy bit. The lines back and forth, the talking at cross purposes, the silliness. It all brought me back to the first time that I heard that bit somewhere in my childhood. When reading it from the translation that we chose, I realized that some of those jokes did not show through. As I have been working at ‘punching up’ the scene a bit, I realized how hard it can be to get just the right natural responses when talking at cross purposes. We all do it at some point in our lives and it needs to come naturally. The more natural the more hilarious. Obviously the audience is meant to be the only entity that understands what is going on, which can be tricky. The other obstacle of course is trying to still be true to the original with what is said and not reinventing the wheel. Although it has taken me a while, I feel that the end product has hit the mark and will make this scene all the better.